Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Brixworth
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave your engine off then keep the ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The trouble begins once it's sucked through your pump — it will not ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. Caught before the motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Brixworth. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Brixworth: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't bin it out.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting NN6 9, or just the name of a street close by, so call from the car.
Never do these:
- Moving the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Pytchley Way.
- Draining the tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
On a forecourt around Brixworth, whether it is the MURCO or another one, ask the staff to help you roll your car away from the pump. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It doesn't combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It drops, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its fuel from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, which is why a vehicle topped up in Queens Row yesterday and not switched on stays the simple one, provided nobody touches your key.
After it's sucked in, the harm takes two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it overnight around Brixworth makes things worse. Inside the tank alone, waiting does nothing. Then there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that need it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
A fault of thin fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. Blended into the diesel and sitting still, it's harmless at that stage; running the engine is the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. It can't just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Whether the car is in Hanging Houghton or the centre of Brixworth, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
As with petrol, there is good news. Anywhere in Northamptonshire your vehicle has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue still inside the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Brixworth?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle picked up while heading home and poured in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Brixworth CofE VC Primary School. Someone tips the bottle in at home, just off Hunters Way, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside George Inn.
It happens most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that's the first response to an identical slip, wherever in Brixworth or the rest of Northamptonshire you happen to be.
Brixworth: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Via the fuel filter, through the lines, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's where it has gone.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from St Davids Recreational Ground or halfway across Brixworth. No restarting to test: pull over once safe, then switch it off. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M1, under 10 miles from Brixworth, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Distance counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, so driving towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away, makes a much larger job than crossing Brixworth to the car park by Brixworth Library. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been run. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage if it's caught quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Brixworth?
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Brixworth: a side street near Brixworth Village Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What got in, roughly the quantity, plus if the motor has been run: our technicians ask before all else, since those decide the job.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, your filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. Then fresh diesel, then a check of the car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians get there, if your engine has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Last, the fuel system is bled with new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, outside Northampton or on a driveway in Brixworth. Before we leave, our technicians confirm it is running correctly with fresh diesel in. We do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Brixworth itself
Brixworth is a village in Northamptonshire, situated in the East Midlands region of England, with an elevation of around 126 metres. Brixworth lies approximately 20 miles from Milton Keynes and 66 miles from London, surrounded by nearby villages such as Pitsford, Spratton, and Scaldwell. Brixworth has a population of around 2623 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Brixworth is characterised by its rural setting and residential community.
AdBlue drains across Brixworth and Northamptonshire
AdBlue jobs around Brixworth are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Pitsford, Spratton as well as Scaldwell — and much of Northamptonshire further out, across NN postcodes. Assuming won't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Brixworth is a rural village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Brixworth?
Since each jobs vary, a single figure would not be honest. What moves the price is, first of all, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Brixworth Central Sports Club.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, plus if it ran: every Brixworth call opens with exactly those, before a figure, not afterwards. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Next to the vehicle in Brixworth, right now?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best step available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Brixworth or wherever in Northamptonshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.